LETTERResponds to story on Guantanamo Bay

Published: July 9, 2014 12:00 AM

I was surprised to read in our Hudson Hub a lengthy article about Carlos Warner's efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Why is a public defender from Ohio using our tax dollars for his project?

The persons at Guantanamo were captured on the "field of battle." They were enemy combatants. They are not U.S. citizens. They did not break our domestic laws. They were not captured on U.S. soil. Therefore, they are not entitled to the benefits of our judicial system. Their incarceration or release is subject to a different standard.

To suggest the "vast majority of men held at Guantanamo" are innocent victims of random capture is without foundation. They were captured for good reason.

To compare Guantanamo to the internment camps of Japanese during World War II is improper. The Japanese residents of the western states were interned without reason other than national hysteria after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Guantanamo internees were captured as they tried to do harm to us.

To print Rahim's assertions of maltreatment, which Warner cannot confirm, is that like "are you still beating your wife?"

Some aspects of war have evolved into groups of people, not necessarily nations with armies, eager to do us harm. They hide themselves well. How do we protect ourselves?